The House on Dudley Road
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day two hundred and ninety-five: The day's come now for Quinn to move back home.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 14th cycle. Now cycle 15!_

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**"The House on Dudley Road"  
Quinn & Judy Fabray  
Prequel to "Goldilocks" **

She had lived in the same house, on the same street, for sixteen years. She'd grown to know every tree, every fence, every car… and her house… Her house was home, it held her whole world and the people who'd built it for her… And if they could build it, they could include trap doors and hidden rooms… Secrets, deception… It was there but she couldn't see it.

The doors were blown wide open the day her secret came out, and they just couldn't be closed again having to say goodbye to all of it, forever as far as she knew, she felt as though the world was expecting for her to carry on with so much taken away, all of a sudden. If it hadn't been for Finn, Mrs Hudson, Mr Schuester, Puck, Mercedes and her family, and the rest of Glee Club filling in the holes with love and support, she would have no doubt collapsed in.

Then her mother had come to Regionals, opened up home to her once again. Once it was settled that she would indeed go back, there was a trepidation in her heart every time she thought about it. All the same, it made her realize how she had both missed being there and started to forget some of it. She was wondering over and over what it'd be like to actually be there again.

The morning came when her mother came to the Jones home, helped get her bags in the car, and drove her home. There was something, a feeling like she'd never experienced, about watching streets go by and starting to fall into memories… They were those streets she knew, once connected, as 'the way home.' She could count off the streets in her head, connect them until it would land her there… Dudley Road… Good old Dudley Road…

Finally she could see it, the house on the corner, with the fence circling around it almost following them as they turned on to the street. The houses, there they were, just as she remembered. It was practically a countdown to it… the house, her house…

She remembered how, on the night she'd last left it, she couldn't look at it, didn't want to mark it in memory as 'the last time she'd seen it.' Now she couldn't wait to be looking at it. And when she did, that was when her eyes had first watered. She tried not to show, but then her mother seemed just as emotional to have this homecoming.

Her father always had to park on the left, be closer to the house… As her mother drove into that left space, it was the first reminder how, even if she was going home, it wouldn't be the same home she'd left behind a few months ago. This was a home without her father, in so many ways. She didn't know what to expect at first, but it soon became clear that the governing idea was not to erase his presence but to… take back the house. Whatever they wanted but were either refused or simply never bothered to tempt and be denied of, they would go for it.

Just the sound of the door opening was enough to bring her back to those memories. Then they were walking into the hall and there it was… the smell, the potpourri… like it was before.

"Do you need help unpacking?" her mother asked as they got her bags upstairs. Quinn's eyes were on her bedroom door. "Your father wanted me to empty it, I… I couldn't just throw it away, so I… packed it up and got it in storage. It was delivered back yesterday, I tried to get it all back the way it was, as much as possible…" Quinn gave her a smile.

"I think a little change might be a good idea, actually," she assured her with a nod. "And… I'm okay," she promised.

"Alright, well, I'll be downstairs. If you need me, or if you're hungry…" she had that wide-eyed 'let me do something' expression about her.

"I just need… a little time to be in there by myself first, but… Think we could move the furniture around a bit after that?" she asked, getting a smile from her mother. "Okay," she nodded in confirmation as her mother headed back downstairs. Quinn looked back to the door, placed her hand on the doorknob… It took her a beat before she could push the door open. When she did, she stepped forward.

The room looked bigger than she remembered, even with things out of place. More than that though, because of the displacement, and her absence, the air felt different. It was her room, these were her things, but there was a disconnect.

Her bed was still bare, but it was in its old place. Other things could move, but not this, and the scoring in the carpet stood as proof. It was right there near the window, and so with her head on the pillow all she had to do was turn her eyes up and she'd see sky, of night or day.

After hesitating some, she'd laid down on the bed, put her head on the pillow… She shifted… It felt odd, not how she remembered. But she turned her eyes and saw sky… This hadn't changed. Her head turned, she caught the scent of the pillow, buried her nose in it… It was her, it smelled of her, still, and she felt her eyes well up all over again. Once she'd let the pillow go, she sat up, looking around the room… Soon after, her mother appeared at the door. Quinn looked at the walls.

"I think… I need a new color…"

THE END

_[A/N: Attention, reader! If you're at all skilled in helping crack fic-planning conundrums, give a big ol' shout! :D]_

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**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**


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